Page 79 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

“I don’t know. I don’t know what happened.”

“It’ll be okay.”

“What about Madigan, Lily Joy, and Sim? And who was that hound?”

My mate shook his head.

“If they planned to just attack us, then why hit the covens?”

“Something else is going on,”he said.“I don’t think they meant to kill us. I think it was a distraction.”

“We need to find shade,” I said, holding my hand over my eyes like a visor. A person could go blind out here. “And we need to find water.”

After several hours of walking, we found an oasis. Connor dug down fairly deep to find us water, but he found it and we greedily drank our fill. It might’ve been gritty, sandy water, but it was safe to drink.

The sun began to set at our oasis, meaning England was hours ahead. Connor lay down, leaving a space open for meto settle in a way that he would be able to keep me safe and warm throughout the night. I managed to drift off until I didn’t-know-how-long later. Connor startled me awake when he stood abruptly, his head low, baring teeth at something in the distance.

“Stay back,” he ordered me as several giant dogs moved into view.Great. Just freaking great.

“Who are they?” I asked him in my head.

“I don’t know.”

The pack leader stared at us, nodded, and then turned to run back the way they’d come from. Connor started off after them but then stopped so I could climb on top of him, then he took off at full speed. He followed the giant dogs back to a camp, where each transformed back into a man when they had clothing to cover themselves with.

One of the men threw Connor a pair of blue, cotton pants in rough shape and a faded, red T-shirt. We must’ve been in South America, given the look of the men, and I was pretty sure they spoke Spanish. The men eyed me like a raw steak. One asked in very broken English if Connor would be willing to trade me for goods he might need.

“No women near,” the man managed to say and so not my problem. The man had very tanned skin from living in the desert, black hair, dark eyes, and a strong physique that I was sure other women found attractive.But sorry there, fella—my mate has everything over you.Connor rose up to his full height, which let’s be honest, towered over these men.

“Touch her and die,” he said in a fierce growl, and with the way their eyes grew wide, each and every man here clearly believed it.

One of the men began whining, “El infierno,” over and over again. “El infierno.”

“That means ‘Hell,’” Connor said to me.

“So they know what you are?”

“Seems that way.”

“But they aren’t death hounds?”

“No. Just your garden variety shifters.”

Then it hit me. “Do you think, since they know what you are, that they’ve seen other death hounds? Are we close to a portal?”

“I’m not fluent by any means, so I hope I’m saying this right.”

“Saying what?” I asked, but he ignored me.

“Sorry if I get this wrong,” he said, then he followed with,“¿Estamos cerca de un portal?”

“¡Sí, sí!”the men shouted.

“Necesitamos comida y agua primero,” Connor said. They nodded and ushered us over to their little nomadic settlement. “I taught myself some Spanish through Google Translate when I was younger. I have no idea if it’s grammatically correct, but it’s close enough for them to understand me.”

“You taught yourself through Google Translate?” I laughed in spite of the situation, picturing a young Connor on Google Translate while other boys his age were playing video games.

He shrugged. “When I’m not trying to keep my mate alive or save the world, it gets slow at work sometimes.”

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